Main Dealer Experience - Am I being reasonable?

[Deleted member 6183]

Another bad encounter. Last Oct. main dealer inspection told I had a cracked nearside front, the tyer hadn't deflated so I figured it's not too bad, I could get it welded ok.
I've mentioned this here already but not the whole story, dealer takes sharp intake of breath and says ,welds usually fail, I ask cost of new wheel, £800, I'm often in this dealers, I have service contract and have bought cars from them, but not this one, I say that's a bit steep what about £600 ooh! can't do that much, he was ass, manager, asked his boss comes back with £700 so I say do it, they order the wheel he gives me a brand new E 220 for 2 days I'm off. 4pm next day heard nothing so ring him, ah! had a problem we've damaged your car, " how the f#ck have you managed that? " Wasn't me was the tyer fitter,I drove over, apparently he'd jacked the nearside up to remove the wheel and left the drivers door open, as the nearside was raised the offside came down onto I don't know, and folded the drivers door to a big crease across half the bottom edge,"you'll need a new door and respray, he said" I said f#@#_+-##** unbelievable#"*"*, " very sorry sir we've ordered the door should be all done in a week."I left in the E class still cursing. This was the begining of last October.
Mid November after a lot more aggravation from them and visiting their body and spray repair workshop in Maidstone, where it had only bee since the previous Tues, and didn't know it happened the month before, told me I could collect it after the weekend, took me to see it, excellent looked brand new. Dealer rings Mon, " you can collect your car Tues well ring you." I'm not making this up. He rings Wednesday I get the car, off we go,the fuel light comes on it almost empty, there's an extra 100 miles on the clock, this time my wife's apoplectic, wants answers, the body shop is a return from dealers of 40 miles, I'd assumed it would have gone there by truck, so what happened. They drove it there for repair, drove it back all done, somehow managed to scratch the new door and had to return it for another paint repair, you could not make it up.
It was only Mrs 103s interrogation of the +#*_#*#s that finally got the truth, hadn't even bothered to put a couple of litres in to get us home. I could go on, save to say after some more negotiation I paid just half price for the wheel £400 got it welded about £ 30 and sold it on e bay to someone in Greece for£125 + shipping cost.
I've still got two more services on my contract to go, so may change to another, Tonbridge used to be ok, but eventually will get an Independent.
If you've read this far , I hope you haven't been too bored and you've all I'm sure, had bad experiences with the stealers, but this for me was beyond farce. You can more or less figure out the dealers involved so I'll tell you it was Lookers. We were glad to just get the car back before Christmas! PS writing it all down some would say helps. It doesn't.

What?

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

oh no, my ML has a false AMG badge on lower grill !!!!!!, but it is covering a hole caused by a kamikaze pigeon !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Am i expecting a visit from the AMG patrol ???????

I’d be more concerned about the pigeon patrol.

 

[markjay]

Another bad encounter. Last Oct. main dealer inspection told I had a cracked nearside front, the tyer hadn't deflated so I figured it's not too bad, I could get it welded ok.
I've mentioned this here already but not the whole story, dealer takes sharp intake of breath and says ,welds usually fail, I ask cost of new wheel, £800, I'm often in this dealers, I have service contract and have bought cars from them, but not this one, I say that's a bit steep what about £600 ooh! can't do that much, he was ass, manager, asked his boss comes back with £700 so I say do it, they order the wheel he gives me a brand new E 220 for 2 days I'm off. 4pm next day heard nothing so ring him, ah! had a problem we've damaged your car, " how the f#ck have you managed that? " Wasn't me was the tyer fitter,I drove over, apparently he'd jacked the nearside up to remove the wheel and left the drivers door open, as the nearside was raised the offside came down onto I don't know, and folded the drivers door to a big crease across half the bottom edge,"you'll need a new door and respray, he said" I said f#@#_+-##** unbelievable#"*"*, " very sorry sir we've ordered the door should be all done in a week."I left in the E class still cursing. This was the begining of last October.
Mid November after a lot more aggravation from them and visiting their body and spray repair workshop in Maidstone, where it had only bee since the previous Tues, and didn't know it happened the month before, told me I could collect it after the weekend, took me to see it, excellent looked brand new. Dealer rings Mon, " you can collect your car Tues well ring you." I'm not making this up. He rings Wednesday I get the car, off we go,the fuel light comes on it almost empty, there's an extra 100 miles on the clock, this time my wife's apoplectic, wants answers, the body shop is a return from dealers of 40 miles, I'd assumed it would have gone there by truck, so what happened. They drove it there for repair, drove it back all done, somehow managed to scratch the new door and had to return it for another paint repair, you could not make it up.
It was only Mrs 103s interrogation of the +#*_#*#s that finally got the truth, hadn't even bothered to put a couple of litres in to get us home. I could go on, save to say after some more negotiation I paid just half price for the wheel £400 got it welded about £ 30 and sold it on e bay to someone in Greece for£125 + shipping cost.
I've still got two more services on my contract to go, so may change to another, Tonbridge used to be ok, but eventually will get an Independent.
If you've read this far , I hope you haven't been too bored and you've all I'm sure, had bad experiences with the stealers, but this for me was beyond farce. You can more or less figure out the dealers involved so I'll tell you it was Lookers. We were glad to just get the car back before Christmas! PS writing it all down some would say helps. It doesn't.

My advice is run for the hills.

 

[markjay]

Also, try Brooklands for the remaining services. A bit of a drive, yes, but I had very good experience with them.

 

[Peter103]

There's also MTA Network in Woodchurch near Ashford/Tenterden, might be a bit closer than Tonbridge. They look after my C220 for me.

Yes I've read of them. What I need to keep is my mobilo Europe MB cover. We run down to South Spain normally twice a year, and other European countries sometimes as well, the service contract with mobilo Europe sounds pretty good, saying that, fortunately we've never had to use it, but on paper looks good.

My advice is run for the hills.

Yes may well be the answer, but living on "The Fifth Continent" as we do, hills are few and far between.

 

[rayaans]

I looked into Lexus previously to see if they suited.

Their service prices at main dealer are expensive (although no worse than the Germans), although if the service is excellent then you get what you pay for so this wouldn't bother me.

However, having tried a 62 plate LS460 (which is based on the previous model and was shyte - felt about 10 years behind an S Class of a similar vintage), a 67 plate GS300h Premier (which did ride well) and NX300h, the conclusion I came to is I felt like I had died inside driving them.

They do a job, they do it well but I felt numb driving them around. Japanese are not famed for their character-full cars, sure, but never a truer word spoken!

I'd rather drive a Merc and use an inde who cares about customer service and their customers in general.

Well a little research suggests the 2012 LS was a facelift and had been going since 2006 so understandable. Similar to how the W204s were last registered in 2015 but came out in 2007 with a mid life facelift.

SUVs always feel numb, could say the same for the GLC tbh, they're catered for different markets. Although having been in an RCF and LC youd have to be mad to call those numb or extremely biased to be fair, the IS handles and rides better than my C204 which I find quite interesting.

 

[zipdip]

Well having visited a number of MB dealerships,they all seem to run along the same lines,large showroom only 5 cars when it could easily have 10,reception desk in the middle,where you are asked what you do want,customer parking/visitor parking is limited,made even more so because the service guys park finished cars there,I make that observation because as I was the only person in the showroom and could only find one space in the visitor parking,if you look at the rear of the dealership where they keep their stock of cars,it is a mess with cars all over the place,it is a large area but with what looks like no system except some have some numbers on the screen or magnetic numbers on the roof,just how they could retrieve a car quickly if a buyer wanted to see it beats me,it also shows why a chap I know gets a great living repairing paint damaged new cars from MB dealerships.

 

[grober]

Think the numbers on the roof thing is for scheduling the order that cars are dealt with for local servicing valeting pre delivery inspection/prep etc Perhaps JDB might enlighten us?

 

[Athey]

For a premium brand you would expect good customer service, but Mb comes as one of the worst. I had to argue just to buy brake lines, and my local dealer won’t sell local specialists parts to repair a customers car. Lexus and bmw were both superb, and even Toyota listed me as a garage to get parts cheaper. As for new cars, I guess you have to use main dealers for warranty, etc, and then people like me who have cars with full history and have the dilemma of whether to keep up dealer history, and use genuine parts or go to a good independent garage and buy parts elsewhere.

 

[Teego]

What I need to keep is my mobilo Europe MB cover. We run down to South Spain normally twice a year, and other European countries sometimes as well

FWIW I think Mobilo is a customer retention hook for MB service depts. I'd recommend RAC UK cover with their annual Europe bolt-on. Over 20+ years I've had to use them a couple of times including hotels, hire car and repatriation of people and vehicle. They didn't argue, just got it organised. I've been with them so long I can always haggle a good deal at renewal.

 

[Teego]

For a premium brand you would expect good customer service, but Mb comes as one of the worst. I had to argue just to buy brake lines, and my local dealer won’t sell local specialists parts to repair a customers car. Lexus and bmw were both superb, and even Toyota listed me as a garage to get parts cheaper. As for new cars, I guess you have to use main dealers for warranty, etc, and then people like me who have cars with full history and have the dilemma of whether to keep up dealer history, and use genuine parts or go to a good independent garage and buy parts elsewhere.

Don't know about our local MB because I don't use them, but local BMW has a business selling OEM parts to indies. Typically the indie charges you BMW retail for the parts (while buying at trade) plus his labour rate which is always less than BMW. Everyone is happy.

 

[John]

Well a little research suggests the 2012 LS was a facelift and had been going since 2006 so understandable. Similar to how the W204s were last registered in 2015 but came out in 2007 with a mid life facelift.

The 2012 was not a facelift. The 2012 was a new model which ran from 2012 > 2018.

As per my previous post which you quoted, it was based on the previous model from 2006 > 2012 (mainly the chassis).

The 2018 model is an all-new model. But is probably still massively over-complicated and a generation behind the S Class.

Although the switch gear in the 2012 was lifted straight from a 1990 Technics Midi System.

SUVs always feel numb, could say the same for the GLC tbh, they're catered for different markets. Although having been in an RCF and LC youd have to be mad to call those numb or extremely biased to be fair, the IS handles and rides better than my C204 which I find quite interesting.

I never suggested only the SUVs were numb - I stated all of them felt numb.

Even the salesman suggested the LC wasn't great.

Although as before, I'm sure they do a job and they do it well similar to the models I drove, although I will never consider a Lexus in the future so not something I care about anyway.

For a premium brand you would expect good customer service, but Mb comes as one of the worst. I had to argue just to buy brake lines, and my local dealer won’t sell local specialists parts to repair a customers car. Lexus and bmw were both superb, and even Toyota listed me as a garage to get parts cheaper. As for new cars, I guess you have to use main dealers for warranty, etc, and then people like me who have cars with full history and have the dilemma of whether to keep up dealer history, and use genuine parts or go to a good independent garage and buy parts elsewhere.

EU Block Exemption Laws mean you can use who you like for servicing, even from new.

They must use OEM parts and stick to the schedules to maintain the warranty.

 

[whitenemesis]

EU Block Exemption Laws mean you can use who you like for servicing, even from new.

Unless the car is bough on PCP or other finance contract, whereby the finance company can impose whatever restrictions it see fit.

 

[Deleted member 6183]

EU Block Exemption Laws mean you can use who you like for servicing, even from new.

They must use OEM parts and stick to the schedules to maintain the warranty.

The garage must also be VAT registered.

I looked at buying a couple of cars recently, all round 2 years old and the book was stamped by independent garages, no paperwork to prove OEM parts/fluids. FSH but gives the dealer network plenty of scope to wriggle out of warranty work.

 

[pmcgsmurf]

The garage must also be VAT registered.

That's what i always thought.

Had the wife's Skoda serviced at a new small local garage started by a couple of brothers who quoted £120 inc. VAT.
When I pointed out there was no VAT number on the invoice they then said they were not VAT registered, I questioned why they quoted inc. VAT and they said it was easier for customers to understand!

Digital service record on Skoda was updated accordingly.

Needless to say I've not been back to that place and had main dealer do the next service.

 

[Deleted member 6183]

That's what i always thought.

Had the wife's Skoda serviced at a new small local garage started by a couple of brothers who quoted £120 inc. VAT.
When I pointed out there was no VAT number on the invoice they then said they were not VAT registered, I questioned why they quoted inc. VAT and they said it was easier for customers to understand!

Digital service record on Skoda was updated accordingly.

Needless to say I've not been back to that place and had main dealer do the next service.

It made a difference for me, I actually turned up to collect my new car, flipped through the service book and left empty handed.

 

[MercedesDriver]

Merc have been going for volume for a while. Premium cars and prices but not the customer service I'm afraid.

And this is exactly the reason why they can't offer a decent service, high sales volumes have overcome their capabilities of providing same good service to all MB owners.

Lexus on the other hand, 3 different dealers and the service is in another level. Free courtesy cars, pick up and drop off, service done in 2 hours, tyres replaced for £10 each and in less than an hour, free puncture repairs. That's just the ones that come to mind.

And because of much lower sales volumes than MB they can offer service on higher level.

 

[John]

And because of much lower sales volumes than MB they can offer service on higher level.

Indeed. The Lexus Salesman I last dealt with told me how many cars they sell and it was trivial compared to the usual German suspects.

Most of the times I've been in a Lexus showroom over the last year (North and South of the country and a good half a dozen dealers and been in some more than once), it's been pretty much empty except for one particular one on a Saturday morning.